Timeline: 5x10 Chinga

Category: Post-episode fiction

He'd panicked momentarily when she announced that she was going away for the weekend. Not that he'd showed it. He'd kept his face free of emotion. But, those words had made him mentally twitch: get out her head for a couple of days. He was fairly certain that Scully liked being in her head. She seemingly kept herself there with apt devotion. So, if she wanted a vacation from all that, he thought fleetingly that she really wanted a vacation from him.

"Sure, absolutely. Treat yourself," he'd said with a grin.

"It's only a weekend, Mulder."

Maybe he hadn't been as unreadable as he'd hoped. He had no intention of letting her see just how helpless he had become without her. Not that they typically spent every weekend together. When they weren't working on a case, he managed to call her maybe once a weekend without any other contact. But, he knew she was nearby. If need be, he could cook up a monster in a minute's notice and have her by his side.

A weekend without a Scully break would just be a weekend of beer, videos, and sitting around in the office, waiting for something to divert his attention. He couldn't even call the boys. They had informed him that they had big plans to try to infiltrate a government convention in Miami, Florida. Frohike had promised to bring back heavy reports of a sensitive nature and pictures of babes in bikinis. The pictures would probably be more useful.

And besides being alone for an entire weekend, he didn't particularly like Vacation Scully. Vacation Scully was the Scully who seemingly wanted to have a life. Who was out of her head and in her body. Who only came out once he was miles away.

All those pencils.

'I wonder how long it took him to start flinging pencils at the ceiling,' she mused.

He'd been bored. Really bored. If his phone call as soon as she was out of range hadn't pointed to that possibility, the sight of dozens of pencils dangling from the ceiling tiles and occasionally flopping to the floor were enough to confirm it.

Of course, it hadn't just been one phone call, it had been several. Not including the one call she'd made—strictly for professional reasons, mind you. Yes, she hadn't managed to have a vacation free from the x-files: she had immediately discovered one herself. Typical that she couldn't shut down for even a weekend. She liked to gripe about Mulder's lack of boundaries when it came to time off the clock, but she acknowledged that she was nearly as bad as he was. She just figured that he was happy living that way, while she was trying to reform.

Scully could be very strict. She was regimented and demanded that there be certain boundaries and certain protocols followed. She lectured him when he broke the rules. But Scully wasn't impossible. Her lectures usually were just that—lectures. She rarely stopped him from breaking protocol unless she was trying to save him from getting his ass handed to him. He'd decided ages ago that she just needed to say it out loud, perhaps to assuage any guilt. Maybe being a military brat instilled a respect for authority in you that Mulder failed to have any share in.

No, she wasn't impossible. She still answered her phone. On weekends, late at night, when she was on vacation in Maine and investigating Chucky dolls. She might hang up on him, but she still answered. And she didn't give him a hard time about his proclivities. Scully could hear strange noises on the line and let it go at "World's Deadliest Swarms". She could find the tape that wasn't yours and return it to the drawer with the other tapes that weren't yours. Plenty of women wouldn't be so tolerant.

Plenty of partners wouldn't be so tolerant. The only way Scully was seemingly going to get bent out of shape about his viewing habits was if he tried to write them off in the expense reports. Scully was regimented about expense reports. She'd probably never gotten creative with her taxes either.

Scully was more than tolerant in a lot of ways, he conceded. She was an angel. Let her roll her eyes. Let her sigh with exasperation. Let her deny the possibility of alien life on this planet at every turn. She still came back.

She had pretended to be a little annoyed with him. She'd rolled her eyes at him after a pencil bopped him on the head. But after a few days away from him, she found his charm a little more alluring than usual. She'd become rather adept at ignoring him when he would turn on the charm. The only time she noticed it nowadays was when it was directed at someone else. He had on occasion been known to use said charms to advance them in a case. It always irritated her: 'Try to be more professional,' she would think, glaring at him. The silent message was leveled at her partner—not herself—despite the unprofessional jealousy that would steel over her.

No, today he seemed rather charming. And happy to see her. She had to admit that it was nice to be needed. Needed and wanted. Even if it was by Mulder. Not that there was anything wrong with Mulder, per say. She imagined that there were numerous women who would give their right arms to be needed and wanted by Fox Mulder. It was just that he wasn't capable of giving back—not in a sustained way. She knew this, while other women might not. She was only too aware of his limited emotional capabilities.

Scully shook her head quickly. Of course, it was merely in the hypothetical that Mulder wouldn't be an ideal mate. Scully was his partner. His friend. That was more than enough for her. She wasn't auditioning him or anyone else for the position of more than friends at the moment. It was just nice to know that he was still appreciative of her. She felt the urge to say something, so that he'd know that she was glad to be back as well.

Mulder noticed her shaking her head and glanced over at her to see her staring off absentmindedly.

"What's up?" he asked, daring to break her reverie.

She looked over at him. "I was wondering what our next assignment would be."

The corners of her mouth barely turned up, and Mulder didn't quite know what to make of her statement paired with what appeared to be the hint of a smile.

"Dreading it already?" He looked down at his wristwatch. "You've been back…what, ten minutes?"

"No, I'm not dreading it," she said with a shake of the head. She looked down at the table in front of her. Mulder kept watching her. "It'll be nice to get back in the field again. Don't you think?"

Mulder grinned. "Well, it depends. What exactly are you hoping for? Ghosts, aliens, mutant freaks?"

"Maybe a little of everything. An x-files stew of sorts," she said, reaching for a pen.

"That might be a tall order," he said, leaning back in his chair and lacing his fingers behind his head. "A tall order even for the x-files," he continued, chewing his bottom lip.

"Anything will do. It'll just be good to be back."

"Okay, well, I've got to tell you that I've been busy here without you, Scully. Doing really important stuff. Big stuff. I'm not really getting back to anything. But, if you want to tag along, I'm always happy to have you."

Scully tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear, holding the pen in the other hand without having anything to write on. "I know, Mulder," she said softly.

Mulder's heart hammered quickly for several beats before he pushed his chair away from his desk.

'Okay,' Scully thought, beginning to panic as she saw Mulder purposefully push away from his desk.

She had meant to say something nice. To make some kind of gesture. She had not wanted him to come over to her. To her relief Mulder put one foot up on his desk and hauled himself up. He balanced himself awkwardly and reached up to begin picking the pencils out of the ceiling. She blinked quickly. Why in heaven's name had she thought that he was coming over to her?

He hopped down from his desk and opened his drawer, depositing the fists full of pencils into it and sliding it shut again. At least it wasn't a total waste of Bureau funds: he would eventually use those pencils.

"You know, I like Vacation Scully," he said.

Scully raised her eyebrows. "Vacation Scully?"

"Yeah…you know, for all the talk about us giving it a break for one weekend you: One. Didn't turn off your cell phone," Mulder said, beginning to count off on his fingers. "Two. Managed to find yourself a case…involving witchcraft and talking dolls, no less." Scully sighed and Mulder held his hand higher to silence her. "And three. Came back ready to meet the new monsters of the world with a fresh suit and a smile."

It was a new suit. Surely Mulder didn't notice those types of things. Scully propped her chin on her hand as she leaned onto her table.

"A smile Mulder?" she asked with a withering look.

"Yeah, I saw a hint of one earlier, Scully," he announced rather proudly.

'Well, yes, I'd say you rather did.'

Mulder walked to the filing cabinet and pulled open one of the drawers, ostensibly searching for something. "So, yeah. I wasn't so sure about Vacation Scully, but now I'm on rather good terms with her."

"Glad you approve, Mulder. Glad you approve."